New Jersey
Notes -Born sometime before 1664... Haven't 100% confirmed exactly when. -Has a bad reputation, but is actually a really nice place. -One of the "straight men" of the North. -Gets angry at the Southern boys if they call her "ma'am" or act a little too polite. She thinks they're looking down on her for being a girl. (The North is predominantly male and not quite as prone to gentlemanly behavior, so when they do act nice it's usually to get something from her or make fun of her.) -She's a little deffensive because of the rumors that get spread, but instead of getting depressed she gets angry or even. -HATES being called "Joisey." Many deaths have resulted from this fatal mistake. -New York claims to hate New Jersey and bullies her by spreading nasty rumors. He's responsible for the Jersey Devil story. (Now everyone either thinks she's possessed, haunted by or is the devil.) -The most densely populated state. Has issues finding space for things and sometimes becomes cluttered. -90% of her people live in cities/urban areas. That's more than any other state! She's also the only state where every single one of her counties is classified as a metropolitan area. She's the ultimate city girl. -Thomas Edison was from New Jersey! -She's good at building bridges. Many of the U.S.'s suspension bridges were built by people from New Jersey. -New Jersey has more diners than anywhere else in the world. (She's the capital of the world for a lot of things it sounds like... most of them not so great or exciting, but it's good to be on top, right?) -Has a lot of resorts cities and towns that are famous and popular. -New Jersey used to be very close to New York and even shared the same governors during colonial times. However, she grew angry and jealous when the governors started showing favoritism to New York. -She used to be a gangster and still has some gangster tendancies when she fights. Her northern region is the car theft capital of the world. More cars are stolen from Newark than in NYC or LA combined! (One of the reasons why everyone thinks she's a bad girl even now.) Because of this, I might make her a kleptomaniac but she doesn't realize it. (Or maybe just so spacy she sometimes gets in the wrong car or picks up things that don't belong to her by mistake.) -Cries easily when flustered or angry. She did it more when she was a little girl and isn't as bad about it now, but she is still prone to teary-eyed-ness. -One of the most ethnically and religiously diverse states in the US. Very tolerant of other people's beliefs. She can speak many different languages. (Her large Italian population has caused a hair to curl in more recent years.) Big Note: It's hard to tell if NJ and NY really do have it out for each other or if they're so used to arguing they just can't stop. Some think it's sexual tension or a love-hate relationship that can't get over the hate part. Most of their squabbles are admittedly petty and they tend to agree on the important stuff. -During the 1920's and 1930's New Jersey was one of the states who was practically run by the mafia. (New York and Illinois were the other two. I'm sure there were others but these are the main three people talk about. I might just give random reference to the others but the story will focus on them) She and New York worked for the Italian Mafia and America (FBI) had a really hard time trying to get them back under control. When I do more indepth research on this subject the details might change, but I'm not going to get into super specific details about the actual gangs/families. It's more a comment on how New Jersey and New York saw the mafia almost like modern day "Robin Hood and his Merry Men" (kind of a comment on their feelings towards banks and the rich during Great Depression Era) despite the fact the mafia was stealing from them and causing a lot of trouble. I might have them be the ones who kidnapped Illinois and helped Al Capone take over. I can't quite bring myself to make Illinois a legit gangster... Poor Illinois is always getting taken advantage of by corrupt people so it was probably more like "So what else is new? T-T" for him. (Note that New York is really where the mafia stuff spread from and still has its strongest hold even though the families' power has declined sharply since the Witness Protection Program went into effect. There will be true historical and just-for-fun times when NJ, NY and some of the other states will actually go to the Mafia for help.) Category:United States